The Case Records of Professor Munakata

From all around the world come many legends and beliefs; professor Munakata, an authority on the study of folklore, reveals the invisible historical facts hidden behind the myths. This story is brightly depicted, the main character using keen reasoning and a deep insight to solve one mystery after another.

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39 Comments

Thanks, Hokuto no Gun, for a really good chapter of a great manga. Even if Hoshino Sensei's anthropology is suspect by modern standards, it still makes for a riveting storyline and good reading. I wouldn't teach Princess Mononoke in a history class (except maybe history of film), but I still enjoy it and think of it as a work of genius.

The anthropology need not be "suspect": remember, this is a work of fiction. There are already several details at variance with reality, such as the existence of an "East Asian University of Culture". There is no reason not to assume that Munakata's iron working civilisation was indeed transmitted from the Middle East down to Japan in Munakata's world. The problem would be if we try to transport what happens in Munakata's reality to our own, like people do with The Da Vinci Code.

Thanks, Hokuto no Gun, for a really good chapter of a great manga. Even if Hoshino Sensei's anthropology is suspect by modern standards, it still makes for a riveting storyline and good reading. I wouldn't teach Princess Mononoke in a history class (except maybe history of film), but I still enjoy it and think of it as a work of genius.

Not Hoshino-sensei. This has been a conceit of Japanese zen Buddhism for several centuries, ever since Christianity appeared with the Europeans. You can actually find religious scholarships in Japanese Buddhist traditions arguing the same even today. Japanese forms of Buddhism are syncretic in nature.

Which, if you'll allow my irreverent digression, is why we have so many great action manga with monks going around beating up yokai.

So, last chapter, Munakata aired the hypothesis that an important figure of Japanese history was Christian. So this chapter, to even things out, Hoshino-sensei insinuates that the Christ is an aspect of Brahma. I guess it makes sense, though I thought that if he wanted to illustrate a "suffering person", he could have picked another example...

Not Hoshino-sensei. This has been a conceit of Japanese zen Buddhism for several centuries, ever since Christianity appeared with the Europeans. You can actually find religious scholarships in Japanese Buddhist traditions arguing the same even today. Japanese forms of Buddhism are syncretic in nature.

So, last chapter, Munakata aired the hypothesis that an important figure of Japanese history was Christian. So this chapter, to even things out, Hoshino-sensei insinuates that the Christ is an aspect of Brahma. I guess it makes sense, though I thought that if he wanted to illustrate a "suffering person", he could have picked another example...

BTW, I just recently realized that Munakata's "Hittites" are really what we now know as "Proto Indo-Europeans" and his hypothetical ironworking tribe is a WW2-era artifact of Japanese pseudoscience. Back when Japan was allying with Germany before WW2, Nazi anthropologists came up with this idea of "Japanese Aryans" as racial justification for the alliance. The idea was that Japanese people were descended from a branch of Indo-Europeans which migrated to the islands and brought with them ironworking skills. This idea was fully embraced by the Japanese anthropological community at the time and lead to the development of many of the concepts shown in this manga. While thoroughly debunked now, at the time Munakata was written the concept of Indo-European migration into the Japanese islands was still somewhat in fashion at the fringes of respectable Japanese anthropology.

Oh, that's an interesting bit of context.

Well, I think we've all realized by now that Prof. Munakata is a bit fanciful. I always wonder to what degree the author was aware of some of the flimsiness of most of Munakata's hypotheses. Luckily, Munakata himself as a character is consistent enough that I can take him as perfectly believable, right along with his professional shortcomings.

BTW, I just recently realized that Munakata's "Hittites" are really what we now know as "Proto Indo-Europeans" and his hypothetical ironworking tribe is a WW2-era artifact of Japanese pseudoscience. Back when Japan was allying with Germany before WW2, Nazi anthropologists came up with this idea of "Japanese Aryans" as racial justification for the alliance. The idea was that Japanese people were descended from a branch of Indo-Europeans which migrated to the islands and brought with them ironworking skills. This idea was fully embraced by the Japanese anthropological community at the time and lead to the development of many of the concepts shown in this manga. While thoroughly debunked now, at the time Munakata was written the concept of Indo-European migration into the Japanese islands was still somewhat in fashion at the fringes of respectable Japanese anthropology.

Hokum no Gun, thanks for bringing us more of Professor Munakata. The other series was a real favorite of mine, and I'm really glad to see more. Hoshino Yukinobu Sensei is a great author and I've liked all works I've read so far. Keep up the great work!